grinder rolls

In Connecticut, where I was born and raised, we call the long sandwiches you might get from a deli or Italian takeout place grinders. My wife tells me that in upstate New York, they call them wedges. I believe that in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, they call them hoagies. Just about everywhere else, they call them subs, thanks in part probably to Subway, which started in, of all places, Bridgeport, CT, just like me. My uncle worked at the first one, and supposedly routinely stole lunch meat to help feed his mom and brothers. This is the type of legacy I come from.

I. Love. Grinders. What would a cheesesteak be, if it was served on a Kaiser roll? Who would want an Italian combo on a couple of slices of rye? The grinder roll is the perfect container for everything from the hot-and-gooey meatball parm, to the cool-and-tangy Italian. What’s better than grinder roll? A homemade sourdough grinder roll!

I started my homemade sourdough grinder rolls dough the way I always start my sourdough: 300g of sourdough starter, 600g of water, and 900g of flour. I brought this together in my KitchenAid with the paddle attachment and then let the flour hydrate for about an hour, covered. I then added a table spoon of oil and switched to my dough hook, and kneaded for five minutes on medium. This probably would have been a good time to add a tablespoon of salt as well, but I totally forgot it this time around!

After kneading, I let my dough rise on the counter, covered, overnight. In the morning it was at least doubled in size and ready to go! I scraped the dough out into my floured bread board, and divided it into eight, roughly equal hunks. I preshaped each hunk into an oblong, similar to a baguette or batard (technique coming soon).

I have this cool nonstick baguette pan that I use to hold the shape of my rolls. It is also common to use a kitchen towel with a pleat pulled up between each loaf. I’m sorry to say that if you plop a bunch of loaves down on a flat pan on a warm day, you will come back to a flat mess of wasted time.

I let my rolls rest for an hour while I preheat my oven to 500F. I place a sheet pan on the bottom rack, ready for the hot water I will add to crest a steamy, moist baking environment for my bread.

When my grinder rolls are rested and my oven hot, I rub some more light olive oil on the tops of my rolls and quickly snip each one a couple of times. I pop them into the oven and pour about a cup of hot water from my kettle into that sheet pan I mentioned. Fifteen minutes later and it’s party time!

This was my first mobile blog post so I hope it came out okay. Do you notice I’m not selling anything? Peculiar. If you liked my post why don’t you smash me a like and drop me a comment? Or leave me a suggestion of a topic you’d like to see me cover? Or tell me about how you first learned about grief and loss? Love ya. Peace!

WHEW. SO my first ever blog post of my life I decided to take on the universe of sourdough bread baking. Mmmmkay.

I covered A LOT of ground and I want to take a step back and examine some of the aspects a little closer. Case in point: Sourdough Starter.

I have kept a sourdough starter around on and off for the last five years or so. I’ve made some mistakes along the way, learned a lot, and want to give y’all a cheat sheet.

A sourdough starter has three components: flour, water, and wild yeast. You can actually make your own by mixing some flour and water together, setting it out, and letting it collect its own yeast! This is hit or miss, because you may have less-desirable yeasts and other nogoodniks floating around. The addition of raisins or apple skins may help, as they re a great source of natural, wild yeast.

That’s a lot of work for something that is available at every decent market, especially those that specialize in whole foods. A quick search online will provide you with a hundred options. My personal preference is actually a free source, because, hey, it’s free, and it has a really awesome backstory. Read about it here: http://carlsfriends.net/

In case you didn’t know, I’m not into selling stuff. I started this blog to share my journey, not to make a living. I am a self-employed accountant and I don’t need Amazon telling what I like and dislike, although I do buy a bunch of stuff from them, since the nearest Trader Joe and Aldi are two hours away. Rant over.

Anywho, once you procure your sourdough starter, which will come in a dehydrated form, you have to rehydrate it and activate it. There will be instructions with the starter, but you basically soak it in some lukewarm water for an hour or so, and then begin your feeding schedule. Initially, you want to feed your baby starter a small amount, more frequently. You do this by adding equal parts flour and water, by weight. Lets say the first feedings are 28g of flour and 28g of water, every 12 hours, for the first 48 hours.

A note on weight and the metric system: many bread recipes use the metric system to measure ingredients by weight. I like it, because it makes me feel like a mad scientist. Weight is a more accurate way to measure ingredients, as opposed to volume, because so many factors can affect volume. The way that your flour is ground, the humidity, and how you scoop can all affect volume. Not so with weight, and grams allow a certain precision I really like. Not familiar with grams? You never sold drugs as a kid and it shows.

You can store your new baby sourdough starter in a special crock, or just any old mason jar. I recommend a quart size, but I have a big family. You could probably make a smaller one in a pint jar, but I wouldn’t know. You need to allow room for your starter to expand and contract: When you feed it, you can expect it to double in size, with carbon dioxide bubbles , so keep that in mind. Oh, very important, you should give your new starter a really punny name, like Doughsephine, or Bread Skelton.

Now that you have a rehydrated, activated, fed starter, you are ready to start baking sandwich bread, dinner rolls, pancakes, baguettes, waffles, English muffins, grinder rolls, batards, cinnamon rolls, rye bread, pretzels, whole wheat bread, boules, naan, and Portuguese rolls.

My typical bread recipe is 300g or starter, 600g of water, and 900g of flour(s). After taking my 300g of starter from my jar, I replace it with 150g of water and 150g of flour. Then, I stash it in the fridge, which slows down the starter’s metabolism, allowing me some flexibility in my feeding schedule. This is a welcome reprieve, as I am already a slave to my work schedule, my wife’s schedule, and my kids schedule, not to mention mother nature’s schedule for planting and harvesting.

I usually bake about once per week, and my starter is plenty happy in the fridge for that time. If I need to bake more often, I will take Peter Parker House out of the fridge for a half day or so, and watch for him to make sure he is active, bubbly, and expanded. If I cant bake for a couple of weeks, I will still remove half of the starter, discard it, and feed as normal.

If you forget to feed your starter for a while, a grey layer of liquid will form on top, which is a byproduct of fermentation called hooch, which is likely ethanol alcohol. This can be stirred back in or poured off, depending on how much we’re talking about. Too much hooch will create a harsh environment for your yeast, and eventually kill them off. A little here and there will contribute to that sourdough flavor.

Tune in next week for our another installment of our series on combating existential dread. Make sure to leave a comment informing me of all of my spelling and grammar errors. Tell your friends too! Peace.

Tag: grinder rolls

Sourdough Starter